Lesnar-Mir II To Run Opposite Carano-Cyborg

The UFC is at it again. Never one to let a rival organization bask in the sunlight, the UFC once again is counter programming a rival’s big card. Strikeforce’s “Cyborg vs Carano” card will air live on Showtime this Saturday at 10:30pm.

MMA Fanhouse is reporting that the UFC will be showing five bouts from the historic UFC 100 card that took place on July 11th from Las Vegas. These bouts will be shown on Spike TV. Heading the way will be the UFC heavyweight title unification bout between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir. Lesnar was able to beat the only man ever to defeat him as the two fought previously in February of 2008 at UFC 81. Mir won that bout via a kneebar submission.

Strikeforce has been able to stay under the UFC’s radar for the most part. They only began to draw the ire of UFC president Dana White when they signed free agent Fedor Emelianenko just days after he spurned the UFC’s lucrative offer.

The Cyborg-Carano bout will be for the first ever Strikeforce women’s championship and will be contested under five-five minute rounds. Also scheduled for the night’s event will be a rematch between Gilberto Melendez and Mitsuhiro Ishida for the Strikeforce interim lightweight title. This bout was supposed to be a rematch between Melendez and the man who beat him for the lightweight title, Josh Thomson, but he was once again forced out due to injury. Melendez will be looking to redeem himself against Ishida who handed Melendez his first career loss on new year’s eve in 2007.

For the Strikeforce light heavyweight championship, we will see the United States debut of Gegard Mousasi as he takes on current champion Renato Sobral in a bout that was scheduled for the ill-fated Affliction “trilogy” card that was canceled. In a welterweight bout former IFL welterweight champion Jay Hieron will now take on Jesse Taylor. This bout was originally scheduled to have Joe Riggs facing Nick Diaz for the vacant Strikeforce welterweight title. Riggs was hospitalized and replaced by Hieron only to see Diaz unable to obtain a license from the California State Athletic Commission due to missing a scheduled pre-fight drug test.

As you can see Strikeforce has a pretty action packed card scheduled and it is enough for the UFC to view them as a threat. Also to be shown from UFC 100 will be Stephan Bonnar-Mark Coleman, Alan Belcher vs Yoshihiro Akiyama, Jon Jones-Jake O’Brien and Shannon Gugerty-Matt Grice. Apparently they are saving the co-main event of Georges St. Pierre-Thiago Alves for St. Pierre’s UFC welterweight championship for another time.

This would hardly be the first time the UFC has gone up against a competitor’s big show. Last July they held a live Fight Night card featuring the debut of Anderson Silva as a light heavyweight as he took on James Irvin. This was of course done to go up against the initial Affliction pay-per-view featuring Fedor taking on Tim Sylvia. Never one to be outdone the UFC came back as they aired UFC 91 featuring a returning Randy Couture defending his heavyweight title against Brock Lesnar. Once again this was to go up against another Affliction pay-per-view this time featuring Fedor taking on Andrei Arlovski.